Role-Based Visualizations Boost Productivity and Profitability

Network management is complicated. Identifying security threats, or solving technical issues using several siloed tools can be an opaque and sometimes sluggish process involving specialists across each area. Whether inside an organization, or in a Managed Services context, integrated data visualization systems streamline the process. However, in most cases, there are multiple different roles involved in maintaining network health, and each role may necessitate a different view of that integrated data. Role-based visualizations are the best solution to this common network management problem.

Role-Based Visualizations Boost Internal Productivity

The customer service department has very different needs from the support department, which is quite different from the management department, they all focus on a different cross-section of the company and without a common view, communication about complex systems can get muddled. The variety and complexity of needs, based on job functions in the company, makes communication across departments challenging if they are using disparate data sources, different systems and unique tools. Businesses need a visualization that yields clarity and enables quick decision-making both inter-departmentally as well as across departments. A view that allows executives and management to see what they want to see, and customer service or IT departments to see what they need to see.

Role-Based Visualizations for MSP

In the context of Managed Services, role-based visualization tools are especially important. Internal personnel like NOC Managers and Engineers must have detailed views of particular network issues, along with other tools that help maintain the health of servers, applications, databases and any number of technical systems. Integrated views of such tools, like ArcSight, NNMi, Service Now, AWS, and App Dynamics are fantastic for NOC personnel or MSPs.

However, it is important to think about how such views may affect the experience of the MSP customer. A CEO or CTO may be looking for an overall view of the health of the network, or checking on the progress of their Service Level Agreement (SLA). They don’t need the same view as technical personnel, whether inside or outside their organization.

That’s where role-based visualizations through a system like edgeSuite provide so much value.

Capabilities to Look for in a Visualization Platform

Not every visualization platform is the same. One-size-fits-all solutions that provide the same view of the same data for everyone in every role can limit productivity, and eat into profits. When looking for a visualization platform, there are four key features to look for:

Pre-built library of integrations that provides an unified view across platforms with no custom software development or modification to back-end applications.

Single account for a back-end application can be shared across an entire group of users, to achieve horizontal scale.

Application administrator can configure access options for many users through a single account, and can limit the number of named user accounts that are needed in the application.

Visualizations can be configured to present specific views based on role in company as well as configure secure views for external users with limited access to back-end systems.

Role-based Visualization and Integration Solution

The ideal integration and visualization solution supports unified views of security and event management tools, analytics engines, as well as incident and device management systems presented by existing applications and present visualizations based on the user’s role. This capability enables all users to see what they want to see, when they want to see it, and be able to make decisions in real-time without changing systems. The ideal integration and visualization solution operates within the modern infrastructure to allow communications across departments and enhanced experiences for MSP customers.

Learn more about how Edge’s Role-based capabilities can be utilized within your organization to save time and produce improved outcomes.